Osborne Clarke in Bristol advises Mera IM on investment from UK family office

By Peter Davison

26 June 2023

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Tom Bussy and James Taylor

Bristol-based lawyers at international law firm Osborne Clarke have advised specialist real estate lender Mera Investment Management, as it secured significant equity backing from a private family office to accelerate its growth plans and future lending ambitions.

The investment will see Mera IM look to deploy some £100 million of lending this year.

Founded in 2019 by ex-Topland financier Ed Matthews, Mera IM is backed by private client capital. Having concluded its first loan in 2020 and delivered £30 million of new lending in 2022, the boutique lender is targeting ambitious growth for 2023.

Its plans include developing its existing team, investing in technology to service increased demand from borrowers and deploying significant capital into senior and mezzanine loans.

Mera IM was assisted by Osborne Clarke’s venture capital team, led by corporate partner James Taylor (right), with support from senior associate Adam Turner, both of whom are based in Bristol.

Partner Tom Bussy (left) and associate director Andrew Parsons – also both based in the firm’s Bristol office - advised on banking. Meanwhile associate Caroline Hynes advised on employment and partner David Nisbet on tax.

Ed Matthews, chief executive at Mera IM, said: “Having built our lending business organically over the past 15 months, this latest equity injection is a significant accelerator to our plans as we seek to grow our team and our lending pipeline.

"I’m very thankful to James, Adam and the rest of the Osborne Clarke team. Their expertise and diligence was very reassuring and made for a smooth transaction process.”

James Taylor said: “It was a pleasure to support Mera IM on securing funding that will enable the business to accelerate its growth plans. I look forward to seeing Ed and the Mera IM team build on their success to date as they pursue further opportunities.”

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.